


That Too-Wide Smile

by gostaks



Category: The Broken Earth Series - N. K. Jemisin
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Hate that exists and continues, M/M, Mid-Time Skip, a bit mutually dubcon, author chose not to tag the sex things that happen, feat. other characters from Found Moon not doing plot-relevant things, it's not really porn but it also doesn't really have a plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 16:00:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gostaks/pseuds/gostaks
Summary: Hi Fairleigh!I'm so glad I got an opportunity to write this for you! I hope you like it. This was definitely super fun to write :D I hadn't considered Schaffa/Eitz as a pairing but I love getting into new characters' heads and it was great to explore Found Moon a little bit more.Headcanons that probably will help with fic context:- I'm taking the passage "Eitz thought he sessed something once, when she shyly asked him to concentrate on Schaffa instead of the earth, because the silver is easier to see...within people than it is in the ground." as an indication that Eitz has a little bit of ability to sess magic.- I also headcanon that Schaffa used to be a little bit more of a loose canon than he is with Nassun—mostly because she can provide more magic/silver than the other orogenes, which allows him more control. He's sorta in an in-between state, with the muscle memory of a Guardian but without most of the control.





	That Too-Wide Smile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts).

> Hi Fairleigh!
> 
> I'm so glad I got an opportunity to write this for you! I hope you like it. This was definitely super fun to write :D I hadn't considered Schaffa/Eitz as a pairing but I love getting into new characters' heads and it was great to explore Found Moon a little bit more.
> 
> Headcanons that probably will help with fic context: 
> 
> \- I'm taking the passage "Eitz thought he sessed something once, when she shyly asked him to concentrate on Schaffa instead of the earth, because the silver is easier to see...within people than it is in the ground." as an indication that Eitz has a little bit of ability to sess magic. 
> 
> \- I also headcanon that Schaffa used to be a little bit more of a loose canon than he is with Nassun—mostly because she can provide more magic/silver than the other orogenes, which allows him more control. He's sorta in an in-between state, with the muscle memory of a Guardian but without most of the control.

Eitz is attuned to Schaffa. He doesn’t emote much, behind his eternal smile, but there are cues. Some days, he’s almost safe. On other days his smile doesn’t follow the natural creases of his skin. It’s too wide, too sharp. Those days, Eitz has to be careful, because Schaffa will hurt him without even realizing it.

(Once, when Eitz was little and had just left Metter, Schaffa had smiled that too-wide smile and squeezed until the bones in his hand snapped. Schaffa apologized, profusely, and cupped his hand around the back of Eitz’s neck and kissed his forehead. They rode on and Eitz did not put his hand in Schaffa’s again.)

Schaffa gets something when he touches the orogene children. Eitz can’t sess magic as clearly as Nassun will be able to—he has the knack, but not the power. He can _feel_ something pass from him to Schaffa when they touch, though. He can see the minute relaxation of Schaffa’s always-tensed body. He watches for it, because in those moments Schaffa is _safe_ and that’s not just important for him, it’s important for the other kids too (otherwise, Eitz would have left—tried to leave—Found Moon before this. But he’s the oldest and he _can’t leave them alone with the Guardians_ no matter how benevolent they seem on the surface and no matter how much they smile).

The discovery is an accident.

Eitz is masturbating, like sixteen-year-old boys sometimes do, when he hears and feels and sesses the _crunch_ of orogeny gone wrong. Adrenaline redirects blood to his sessapinae as he races out of the dorm (pausing to grab a clean folded blanket) to see Schaffa and Wudeh and Nida on the practice ground. Wudeh has done… something, and chunks of stone litter the ground. His arms are bleeding, where shards must have cut him.

This isn’t new. Wudeh is strong (for a denizen of Found Moon), and he has some control and training, but sometimes his power surges or wanes suddenly and things go wrong. Eitz thinks it will get better when he’s older, if he survives long enough.

Eitz passes his blanket to Nida and turns to Schaffa. Yes, there’s the too-wide smile. Eitz knows this particular subtle expression—it’s the same one Schaffa wore when Eitz made his first clumsy attempts at intentional orogeny.

(They’d been on the road for a year when Schaffa discovered that the farmer whose barn they’d slept in was an orogene. She’d crept in the dark to Schaffa’s pile of hay with a glassknife, and it was only after Schaffa’s huge hand shot up and grabbed her wrist that she lost control. He pulled her close and there was a long moment where she did nothing at all, paralyzed by surprise. Then Eitz caught the glint of Schaffa’s white teeth and the woman began to spin a torus and in a single fluid motion Schaffa broke her neck.

He’d dragged the orogene’s body behind the barn and kicked the frosted hay into a corner before coming to wake Eitz. He didn’t seem to realize that Eitz had seen the whole thing, and Eitz said nothing, just noted the smells and the smiles and then tucked them away in the corner of his mind where a terrible thought was growing)

Walking across the circle, Eitz doesn’t take his eyes off Schaffa. When he crosses the center, Schaffa’s eyes lose (change?) their blank look, and he focuses directly on Eitz. That means they’re no longer fixated on Wudeh, who is still shaking, Nida muttering soft words into his ear.

Carefully, so carefully so that he doesn’t startle Schaffa, Eitz reaches out and presses his fingertips against Schaffa’s chest.

Schaffa slides his fingers up Eitz’s arm and Eitz feels the familiar buzz of a Guardian and the _strangeness_ of touch without sess. Schaffa’s hand settles on the back of Eitz’s neck, heavy and warm. Too dimly for Eitz to be sure it’s there, he sesses the threads of power that flow from him to the back of Schaffa’s neck, where he has that huge, odd scar.

Other things are flowing, too. This isn’t the first time Eitz has gotten an ill-timed erection, but he feels odd. It’s almost like the threads that Schaffa is spinning out of him are tugging against him, and, well, there’s a pleasant amount of friction in his trousers.

The hand on the back of his neck lets go and Schaffa smiles down at him. It’s not the deadly smile anymore. But it’s somehow… hungry.

-

Experimenting with Schaffa’s reactions feels a lot like teaching himself how to use orogeny. Schaffa never quite asks Eitz to give up his autonomy the way the fulcrum would, but he’s also working on certain ingrained patterns. He’s taught Eitz that his body is a tool to be used. Eitz just generalized that lesson.

Schaffa makes a habit of getting each of his charges alone, most days. He’s predictable about it. He’ll pull Eitz off in the mid-morning and spend an hour with him, talking and running a hand over his hair. This is when he takes the threads from Eitz, and for hours after Schaffa smiles more easily and Eitz feels tired and distant.

(When Eitz was younger, Schaffa would make the excuse of helping with his hair, or making sure he ate his whole breakfast, or giving him some time in the crucible with no one else watching. He’s mostly dropped the pretense, the last few years.)

Eitz is willing to do a lot, to see Schaffa’s face relax. He’s not always sure why. Maybe it’s just that he has so little to give Schaffa, beyond these moments. He’ll never be a powerful orogene, never move mountains or obelisks or satellites (not that he even knows enough to try), never even pull pillars of stone out of the earth like Wudeh does on his better days. He would serve a comm better bearing the name of Strongback, but that’s not an option. But if he can give Schaffa more, if he can do whatever he does and make it so that Schaffa will never hurt the rest of the kids…

At least, that’s what’s going through Eitz’s mind when he ducks away after breakfast to see what happens if he goes to Schaffa aroused.

They ran out of things to talk about a long time ago. Eitz’s orogeny is progressing, glacially and predictably. Schaffa has forgotten most of the stories he once told grits, and told Eitz the rest when they were on the road together. There are no plays or poets or pop lorists this far from the equator, and neither of them would have been permitted to attend performances anyway. There isn’t even much to gossip about, not with such a small group, so isolated from Jekity. So normally, they just sit and stare off at Found Moon’s walls.

Schaffa touches Eitz’s hand, and threads begin spinning up his arm and pulling at his insides and Eitz’s penis is suddenly hard and very warm. He lets out a soft breath.

The shock is mutual. Schaffa pulls his hand back, probably surprised at pulling more threads from Eitz than he intended. The tugging inside Eitz stops, but his awareness is centered firmly on his crotch. The pressure is still there, still building.

Eitz reaches out and grabs Schaffa’s hand. He considers, for a moment, where he wants to put it. He decides on the back of his neck. Schaffa’s hand is too warm, almost burning. _Please_, he says.

Schaffa’s eyes meet Eitz’s, disturbingly pale, then flick down Eitz’s body and settle on the bulge in his pants. _It is forbidden!_ Schaffa says with his mouth, but he’s leaning forward and his thumb is digging into the back of Eitz’s neck.

Eitz stands and Schaffa stands with him, looking just a bit dazed. Eitz doesn’t know what to do. He’s never learned the conventions for these things, so he does what feels _right_ and leans in to Schaffa’s chest, pulling his face in close to Schaffa’s shoulder.

His cock rubs against Schaffa’s leg and for a moment, not able to sess Schaffa’s body, Eitz doesn’t even realize. It feels good, though, the layers of friction and the press of body to body. Then, slowly at first, he starts to move his hips, rubbing up and down and _fuck_ it feels good.

Schaffa’s left hand grasps Eitz’s chin with thumb and forefinger and he freezes.

He’d forgotten. For a moment, he’d forgotten that Schaffa could, if he wanted, kill Eitz in any one of a dozen ways. He’d forgotten that Schaffa was cold and dangerous and that vulnerability would only get him hurt (a twinge in his hand, from that thought).

Gentle pressure guides Eitz’s face up until he locks eyes with Schaffa. His smile is gone. There is no too-wide smile of _dangerous_ Schaffa, no sharp-but-controlled smile of Schaffa in his good moments.

In its place, Schaffa is, for the first time in the eight years Eitz has known him, relaxed. Not just the smile, which always pulled his face out of shape, but the tension around his eyes, the constant quirk of his brows, the set of his shoulders.

_Please, _Schaffa says, and his voice sounds so different when his jaw is relaxed, _don’t stop._

For a moment, it’s tempting. Eitz could pull back, step away from Schaffa’s too-warm body and the weird buzzing in his sessapinae and the ache that tells him that Schaffa has pulled too many threads and his orogeny will be dulled for days. He could pull back, not let Schaffa take any more of him, watch the pained smile creep its way back up his face. He could pull back, flee Found Moon, and leave the other orogenes to fend for themselves.

But—

But he’s the only family Eitz has.

But making Schaffa happy feels so _good_.

But love and fear aren’t _simple _and Eitz has _responsibilities _and the way Schaffa looks right now he’ll be safe for days, safe long enough for Eitz to recover his strength, safe enough that maybe he won’t even have to take from the other orogenes until Eitz can be there for him again.

But Eitz needs Schaffa to need him.

But as long as Schaffa needs him, he’s in control.

But deep down, Eitz _wants_ this.

So he leans into Schaffa’s body and begins to grind against him in earnest. And when Schaffa gets hard and takes Eitz’s hand and guides him gently into the Guardians’ house, Eitz comes.

(And when Schaffa reaches out with an oil-slick hand, takes Eitz’s cock, and guides it gently into his ass, Eitz comes).

**Author's Note:**

> A zeugma is the same thing as an ending, right?
> 
> This is my first time writing anything even vaguely smutty so, uh, I hope that worked for you :D


End file.
